Going South…
Dear Friends,
Welcome to February’s Substack.
I hope you’ll enjoy this month’s blog Going South….The audio version is available by clicking the link in the blog itself or clicking the link here for all podcasts. https://joanneleedomackerman.substack.com/podcast The blog was written in mid January. Much has happened in our nation’s capital where I live since then. I’ll be watching, thinking and in conversations. More to come in March.
Book News this month shares brief news and interviews, notice of the paperback of The Far Side of the Desert coming out this spring and a link to Authors for LA and other links for aid.
The Writers at Risk section focuses on the case of academic and author Étienne Fakaba Sissoko of Mali.
The Books to Check Out section features three novels published in January: Robert Crais’ new novel The Big Empty, Joseph Finder’s The Oligarch’s Daughter and James Grippando’s Grave Danger.
In the Scene section you’ll find photos along with text from The Far Side of the Desert.
Thank you to friends and new readers who’ve come to bookstores, libraries, book clubs and online to share my new novels Burning Distance and The Far Side of the Desert, which comes out in paperback in April. If you’re interested in having me speak at a venue or with a book club, you can click here. I look forward to staying in touch and also meeting new readers. Thank you for sharing my books with friends, for leaving reviews with online booksellers and for reading and sharing this free monthly Substack On the Yellow Brick Road.
Going South…
I’m heading South for a few days. The frozen river in front of me has melted, the ducks are swimming again, but sub-freezing temperatures and ice and snow are returning tomorrow, and hunters are still out till the end of January.
I want to think in the sun, or at least in warmer weather for a few days, so I’ll leave the day before Martin Luther King’s birthday and the Inauguration. I’ll visit family and write from a place with sun and sea gulls and add to this blog there.
I would like to ship our snow and ice to Los Angeles where I lived for 11 years. I recognize with deep sadness and memory the places now destroyed by fire. The landscape is compared to the ruins in a war zone. This is accurate. An important distinction is that no enemy did this, and communities are helping each other and trying to save each other and the animals. This spirit of community and caring for one’s neighbors is prevailing.
From afar friends and neighbors can help with aid. (Some sites for donations are listed at the end of this blog.) Extending and expanding compassion wherever we live helps that spirit. Community is not partisan. Outreach is not what can you give me if I give to you, but an expression of shared humanity.
I’m sitting outside with freezing fingers tapping on my phone in the cold dawn of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It is time to go inside. I’ll finish this blog in warmer climes….
Clouds envelop the sky today on the warmer shores of Florida. It’s raining, but I’m no longer bundled in mittens and socks and boots. Ideas and words continue to flow so I can sit by the window, glimpse the ocean in the near distance and write all day. While I don’t see the sea gulls at the moment, I know they’ll return. A crow is hopping outside on the railing. I like crows; I’m reading and writing a bit about crows, but that is for another day. Back to you in March….
Some suggested sites for donations of aid and books to writers and libraries and schools in the Los Angeles fires:
PEN America Los Angeles Wildfire Emergency Response Grant
LA Fire Department Foundation
California Fire Foundation
Wildfire Recovery Fund - California Community Foundation
Dream Center
World Central Kitchen
Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
American Red Cross
Save the Children
Donate new and gently used books (Adult Fiction and Non-fiction, YA, Middle Grade Novels, Fantasy, Speculative, Sci-Fi, and Children’s picture books)
Contact @juliafierro or @LAWildfireBookDrive for details
The paperback of The Far Side of the Desert is released April 15 from Oceanview Publishing. I hope you’ll order, read and enjoy. If you’ve already read the novel, thank you! If you enjoyed, I hope you’ll buy the paperback and give it to friends!
“Alliances—familial, situational, political—gird this engrossing thriller from novelist Joanne Leedom-Ackerman. U.S. foreign service officer Monte disappears during a visit to Spain; the search to find her, spearheaded by older sister Samantha, ricochets from Morocco and Egypt to Washington. Monte’s captivity is brutal, but there’s resilience, too, as both sisters slay old demons and chart new paths.”
—The Christian Science Monitor (Best 10 books of March 2024)
I’m pleased to be part of the Authors for LA Auction to help raise funds for the Red Cross support of writers and others in the Los Angeles fires. A further list of places for support is at the end of the blog above.
Thank you to HastyBookList for featuring Burning Distance on their recommended list of books set in London.
Thank you to Book Notions for their recommendation of The Far Side of the Desert in their 2024 list of fiction.
And thank you to all who have come together and shared readings and conversations around my novels in 2024.
Below are some selected recordings of events and interviews:
Book Launch for Akram Aylisli's People and Trees with Plamen Press
Why Baldwin Matters Series, The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center
Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café in Asheville, NC
Kinokuniya Bookstore in New York City with Salil Tripathi
Baum on Books on WSHU Public Radio
Interview with Anna Roins of Authorlink
Interview with Deborah Kalb
For more podcasts, videos and interviews, click here
Burning Distance (Oceanview Publishing, 2023 and paperback in 2024) was honored by the 2024 American Book Fest International Book Awards as a Finalist in the Best Mystery/Suspense and Thriller/Adventure categories.
“Burning Distance opens with a mystery, glides into a love story, and unfolds into a political thriller. Set against the backdrop of 1980s and 90s global politics, readers will be up way past their bedtimes eagerly turning pages to discover what happens to Lizzy and Adil. A story of war, family, history, politics, and passion. Joanne Leedom-Ackerman’s evocation of the era is pitch-perfect. A great read!”
—Susan Isaacs, New York Times best-selling author of It Takes One To Know One
Étienne Fakaba Sissoko (Mali)
(Sources include PEN International, Amnesty International, West Africa Democracy Radio, and BBC News)
Professor Étienne Akaba Sissoko, author, economist, and academic was arrested at his home in Bamako, Mali in March 2024, charged with “harming the reputation of the state,” “defamation,” and “dissemination of false news disturbing the public peace’’ after the publication of his book Propaganda, Agitation and Harassment – government communication during the transition in Mali.
In his book Professor Sissoko criticized the military government’s public information campaigns that he alleged used misinformation and lies to sway public opinion in favor of the military junta that overthrew the government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in 2020 after widespread anti-government protests over the handling of jihadist unrest. Professor Sissoko, a former advisor to the President, called for elections, but the military government remains in power.
Sentenced to two years in prison, with one year suspended and a fine of XOF 3 million (about USD 4800) for ‘damages’ to the state, Professor Sissoko lost his appeal, and his sentence has been upheld.
Mali’s constitution as well as both the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of which Mali is a party assert the right of freedom of expression and the peaceful exercise of that right.
Freedom of expression organizations, including PEN International and Amnesty International, have spoken out in defense of Professor Étienne Akaba Sissoko and called for the quashing of all charges and his immediate release. Human rights organizations have expressed concern that the arrest and imprisonment of Professor Sissoko is only one of the crackdowns on critics and opponents of the military government. In April, the junta suspended political activities and imposed a media blackout on political coverage.
To Take Action for Étienne Fakaba Sissoko:
Please send appeals to the authorities of Mali, urging:
Immediate and unconditional release of Étienne Fakaba Sissoko and guarantee of his safety, wellbeing and human rights, including the right to freedom of expression.
Send your appeals to:
Mr. Mahamadou Kassogué
Minister of Justice and Human Rights
Cite administrative – batiment 12
BP 97 Bamako, Mali
Email: mamoudoukassogue@gmail.com
Embassy for Mali in the United States
Ambassador SEM Sékou Berthe
2130 R Street NW
Washington DC 20008
Email: administration@maliembassy.us
Send appeals to the Mali Embassy in your own country. Embassy addresses may be found here: https://www.embassy-worldwide.com/country/mali/
An attack on a writer, the shutting down of a publishing house, the torching of a newspaper reduce the space in the world where ideas can flow. Freedom of expression is vital to writers and to readers but is challenged daily around the world. Listed here are organizations whose work on human rights and in particular issues of freedom of expression I’ve been engaged with directly and indirectly over the years. Some of the organizations have broader agendas, but all have contributed to keeping space open for the individual voice.
PEN International (with its 147 centers in over 100 countries)
PEN American Center
English PEN
PEN/Faulkner Foundation
Human Rights Watch
Amnesty International
Amnesty International USA
International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX)
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Article 19
Index on Censorship
Poets and Writers
Authors Guild
International Center for Journalists
Books occupy most rooms in my house. Friends and friends of friends send me novels, nonfiction books and books of poetry, some signed by writers I haven’t yet met. I also read about books in reviews or am told about books by friends and will buy the books so that I don’t forget to read them. This is all to say that I have more books in my study and bedroom and most rooms than I will ever be able to read, and yet I take comfort that they are there. You never know when that book is exactly what you need at a particular moment of life.
This column features just two or three books a month and is fueled by that “you’ll never know…” Each month I consider what to highlight and pair. I consider the books I’ve read that month and also look through all the other books. More than once I’ve pulled from a pile a book whose author I don’t know and my memory of how I received or acquired the book I don’t recall, but there it is. Last month’s novel The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela was such a book—a discovery, a small light and bolt to the imagination.
Because my own last two novels were published as international political thrillers, I’ve been reading in this and related genres and taking the recommendations of others. This month one novel I’m focusing on is by a master detective writer I had never read—Robert Crais and his new novel The Big Empty. From the list of multiple awards he’s won, including Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, with readers in 62 countries of his 24 novels, I am likely in a minority of those who didn’t know him. In his earlier career he was a television writer for such series as Hill Street Blues and Cagney and Lacey.
The second novel The Oligarch’s Daughter by Joseph Finder just published this last week. I was on a panel with Joseph Finder this fall at Bouchercon. Though I don’t entirely recall, I think it may have been his recommendation of The Big Empty that introduced me to Robert Crais. Finder is author of 17 novels, two of which have been made into films. Finder has also won awards, including the National Thriller Writers Award.
James Grippando’s chilling novel Grave Danger with Iran as context and backstory also published in January. Author of 32 novels, published in 28 languages and winner of awards including the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, James Grippando generously blurbed my novel The Far Side of the Desert, and I’ve been reading and enjoying his novels ever since.
The Big Empty is exactly that—a horrific crime solved by Crais’ private investigator Elvis Cole, who has featured in more than half of Crais’ novels. The writing is crisp, the plot at a pace and the characters those you can care about, but the destination of the story uncovers the darkest side of human nature, one I almost didn’t share here except that the questions it poses are worth considering. The final two or three pages of the novel are where I would like to see a novel unfold, but that is perhaps for a different genre.
In The Big Empty Elvis Cole is called by a young Gidget-like young woman Traci Beller, a budding entrepreneur known as “the muffin girl,” owner of a blossoming franchise “The Baker Next Door.” Her father disappeared when she was a young teen, and as she nears the tenth anniversary of his disappearance, she hires Elvis to try once and for all to find out what happened to him. As a reader we care about Traci, about Elvis, about Elvis’ partner Joe Pike, though we don’t care much about those surrounding Traci. As Elvis is attacked and witnesses begin to die, and an anonymous “kill car” shadows the story, the reader moves inexorably to the final devastating reckoning.
From The Big Empty:
Traci led me across a used brick patio to the shade of a blossoming pear tree. Dina stopped at the doors, giving us space. Kevin circled behind Dina, glowering over her shoulder.
Traci lowered the backpack and took a breath.
“Whew. We’ve been shooting since four a.m.”
“Do all these people work for you?”
She grinned.
“Crazy, right? I began posting content in high school and it sort of took off.”
“Videos of you, baking?”
Her grin widened and she dimpled.
“Me, baking. Now Kevin manages my business and Dina manages my schedule. Who knew?”
Traci Beller wasn’t beautiful like a model or an actress, but she had a fun, friendly, best friend quality I liked a lot. Her eight-point-two-million followers probably liked it, too.
I said, “We have nineteen minutes left. Do I have time to eat a muffin?”
Traci giggled and looked even younger. Then she glanced at Kevin and led me farther away.
“Did Dina give you the check?”
“She did. Thank you.”
The enormous brown eyes turned serious.
“A friend at the Times says you’re good at finding people.”
“I could pretend to be modest but why bother?”
I waited for Traci Beller to smile, but she didn’t. I cleared my throat.
“Who would you like me to find?”
“My dad. My father disappeared ten years ago next month.”
Joseph Finder’s The Oligarch’s Daughter is a novel hard to put down. I read it in a day and a half, setting aside other work to finish it. The characters seduce; the action takes off, and the story compels with its twists and turns and multiple identities for the main character. What are the consequences of falling in love with the beloved daughter of a multi-billionaire Russian oligarch embroiled in international espionage? Not an everyman’s dilemma, but in fact the story and its characters beg questions of identity, family fidelity, and patriotic loyalty.
As a good thriller does, The Oligarch’s Daughter unfolds with twists and turns and surprises at the end. The novel will likely make it to the screen. It has the pace of John Grisham’s The Firm, which is referenced in the book, and of Finder’s own High Crimes. Finder is a Russian scholar and his details and knowledge of Russia and its current history lend credibility to the characters and story as does his knowledge of the FBI, the CIA, survivalist living and New York City society. The Oligarch’s Daughter delivers.
From The Oligarch’s Daughter:
“Until that day, Grant had never killed anyone. He had thought about it before, of course, the way you imagine the worst thing you could do if you had to. You rehearse it in your dreams, in your unconscious. Inwardly, you debate.
How far would I go?
Grant’s girlfriend was helping him cook dinner, the night before it happened. She was Sarah Harrison. She taught first grade in the town’s elementary school and was sweet and gentle with a core of steel. He’d been attracted to her since the first time he met her, at the Starlite Diner five years ago. But there remained a distance between the two of them. Entirely his fault. He cared about her, but there was too much he couldn’t tell her about himself.
In his legal thriller Grave Danger James Grippando brings to life the drama, complexity and contradictions of an international child custody case, Iranian/American relations and marriage in both cultures. Springing from the headlines in Iran, Grave Danger grows out of the protests and crackdown on women who refused to heed laws about wearing the hijab and cutting their hair. The resulting imprisonment, torture and even killing of hundreds of young girls and women brought on international outrage and inspired Grave Danger’s story of a custody battle for seven-year-old Yasmin, daughter of Ava Bazzi, one of those swept up and sent to the infamous Evin prison.
Ava is arrested on the edges of a demonstration in Tehran and is never seen again. Her sister Zahara marries Ava’s husband Farrid and becomes stepmother to their child Yasmin, whom Zahara abducts and takes to the U.S. where she claims sole custody and accuses Farrid of abuse.
Grippando’s hero, criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck, takes on the case in defense of Zahara only to face intimidation and a complex opposition from the U.S. State Department and CIA who have their own agenda in Iran and occasionally from his own wife FBI agent Andie Henning. A lawyer himself, Grippando delivers a gripping novel and an education in the laws around international child custody, including the Hague Convention.
From Grave Danger:
“We must hurry,” Ava shouted, and she started running, leading Yasmin along with her.
“Are we going home?”
“Daddy’s office,” said Ava. “It’s closer.”
Ava made a turn down a side street. Demonstrators sprinted past her and Yasmin, and Ava could see the utter panic on their faces. A gunshot rang out somewhere in the surrounding neighborhood. The crowd scattered in all directions, people screaming in confusion, and the race down the street became a stampede of civilians in search of any safe place to hide from the police. Ava’s husband had his office on the north side of the boulevard, but barricades blocked their way. Armed members of Tehran’s Guidance Patrol had closed off the square. Yasmin could run no farther. Crying and exhausted, she forced her mother to stop.
“What now, Mommy?”
Their apartment wasn’t as close as Farid’s office, but there was no other choice. Ava picked up Yasmin and carried her, running a half block and then walking to catch her breath, then running again toward home. Another canister of tear gas exploded behind them, propelling Ava forward. Gunshots cracked in rapid succession—pow, pow, pow!—unleashing screams and more panic.
Sharing here images and passage of text from The Far Side of the Desert:
They arrived at Jews’ Gate where the monument to the Pillars of Hercules stood—two large bronze-colored discs, one proclaiming “The Ancient World,” the other, “The Modern World,” each supported by columns. A roadblock turned traffic back. Monte sank onto the steps of the monument.
(Over the years I’ve accumulated a running list of words I haven’t known from two main sources: WordDaily and WordGenius)
Pecksniffian
\pek-SNIFF-ee-un\
Part of speech: adjective (often lowercase)
hypocritically and unctuously affecting benevolence or high moral principles.
1850–55; named after Seth Pecksniff,character in Martin Chuzzlewit, a novel (1843) by Dickens; -ian
Examples:
“With another season underway, suspend your Pecksniffian disapproval of the college football industry’s recent upheavals.”
“He is for ‘fair trade,’ a.k.a. protectionism disguised in Pecksniffian sanctimony demanding that less-developed nations adopt stronger labor and environmental standards.”
Kakistocracy
/kakəˈstäkrəsē/
Part of speech: noun
1. Government by the worst persons: a form of government in which the worst persons are in power
The Economist decided upon “kakistocracy” as its 2024 Word of the Year.
Examples:
“We literally have a government being run by a kakistocracy that has no idea whatsoever what they are doing.”
“He wonders whether these new colonies could become a kakistocracy.”
“In contrast, kakistocracy was government by the unskilled, unknowledgeable and unvirtuous.”
I’ve spoken at bookstores, university classes, book luncheons and in-person and zoom book clubs and look forward to more ahead. I enjoy giving readings and addressing audiences in many venues and moderating discussions on a wide range of topics and most of all meeting readers.
Click here for a list of future and past public events.
Or fill out the speaking request form to schedule an event.
I like engaging with readers so if you are in a Reading Group or Book Club and read one of my books, I’m glad to be in touch by email, zoom, or when possible in person. I can also suggest discussion topics.
Fill out the reading group form here to schedule a meeting.
Thank you for another blog of vivid images of place, world topics and book suggestions. I look forward to both reading and listening each month. This month I appreciate your including donation sites for the Los Angeles wildfire. Thank you!